We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Connor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
John, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
It seems that the public school systems have become expanded day care centers.
Recently it was stated that in California 83% of the HS graduates could not perform above the 8th grade level in mathematics!! .. Now it just so happens that these kids are the country’s and our future !!
When I was in school (from 8th thru 12th grade) I worked every day after school on a dairy farm till 9pm..No time to do any school homework… I still learned something. I graduated and went to Drexel Inst of Technology and got my undergrad degree in Nuclear Physics.
The students of today need to find an environment where they can work and explore to find their future. I tell kids that are graduating to NOT go directly into college and spend $$ on a degree that they will never work … but to travel and get several short term jobs, and find their passion…then if it requires a college degree then okay.. but otherwise don’t go, save that $200K debt and start your own business.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Being asked to tell a very brief story of my life to date, here it is, and as it was:
The wanderings that are reflected in my life story reflect my belief from what my Father told me at age 10.. .”Son, whatever you do keep moving on…After 5 years doing working somewhere you are no longer part of the solution…you are part of the problem!”
So here it is:
1944 – Born in Snohomish WA – Which my early family tree (Gimmers) settled in the 1830’s … and 6 months later I was moved to Maryland.. because my father was reassigned within the US Army to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
1957/1962 – Fast forward .. been living in Perryman Md all this time, one block away from the B&O Railroad, surrounded by 2 cornfields.. got my first job at age 13 working on a dairy farm, everyday after school until graduation (15 cents an hr). When asked later in life what I learned about dairy farming (Dawn to Dark 7 days a week), my simple reply was that “I didn’t want to be a farmer when I grew up”.. I’m going to college.
1962/1967 – So off to Drexel Institute of Technology in downtown Philadelphia a real change from the farmlands. Got my degree in Particle Physics..5 years later – Drexel for 6 mos. and Aberdeen Proving Ground for 6 mos. and developed the Neutron Bomb, and final test of it in Nevada.
1967/1972 – As soon as I graduated I was drafted into the Vietnam War, So I decided to join to Air Force instead. Lots of technical military schools later I was assigned to Okinawa for 2 ½ years to be the Commander of AF Technical Escort (Biological/Chemical Weapons – aka Bugs and Drugs). Got married and had our first child, who went on to get her Phd at UCLA.
1972/1974 – Off to Duke University to get an MBA. Got a part time job working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in North Carolina on setting the SO2 standard for the Clean Air Act …. More about this later.
We had our second child who went on to get her law degree at Univ of Pa.
1974/1979 – Worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the Environmental Planning Div. as the Chief for Planning and Management. We had our third child who went on to get his Masters degree at Williams.
1979/1982 – Left Government (I thought) and moved to Denver, Co. to work with Atlantic Richfield Oil Co (ARCO) to manage their tax operations for five of their domestic operations (Anaconda Copper Co. being their biggest). When Regan was elected I was assigned to Wash DC as ARCO’s lobbyist, on placed Regan’s transition team to get the Alaskan Pipeline through congress.
1982/1990 – I’m done with government (again). Went to work with Booz Allen, Inc. to head up their corporate tax consulting for all their west of the Mississippi River corporate contracts.
1990/2003 – Hey, I can do this.. so I moved to Newport Beach Ca and started my own tax consulting company (Western Treasury Group). Had a lot of Western State clients…. a lot of traveling … oops, time to retire.
2003/2007 – Bought a 23 acre ranch in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana..
2007/2013 – Oops, time to get back to civilization. Moved back to Lake Arrowhead, CA and consulting in whatever. A lot of time as Villa Ford Automotive Company’s as their CFO until we sold it. Time to retire again !!
2013/Current – That didn’t happen.. Bought some buildings and established TudorVille in Lake Arrowhead. Established a Dinner Theater, then the Bracken Fern Manor Hotel.. then the Club House/Amphitheater for live concerts. Alas.. still doing all of that !
Contact: John Connor Cell:949.922.3435 or
Email: [email protected]
So today I am fully engaged it TudorVille…. . a place where stage performers (bands or theatrical) can play to the crowds…and get the children involved with that job/career that they were looking for.
Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.
I moved up the the mountains is Southern California (Lake Arrowhead) to fully retire and travel the world.
I had two acting/performer friends that lost their venue in 2013 so I purchases the empty (5 years) Tudor House and remodeled it to become a stage and dinner theater. Then I felt that the history of [Club Arrowhead in The Pines] needed to be restored …so I bought the remaining 3 original buildings on 2 acres (all originally built in 1923-1929) and restored TudorVille to become the Tudor House (Dinner Theater), the Bracken Fern Manor (now an Historic Hotel) and the Club House (now an outdoor amphitheater – seats 400, and indoor second stage – seats 50)
Since then 2013 we have had more that 200 plays/shows/bands/schools/non-profit organizations come to TudorVille and put on their show, raise their own money,… and “Put on the Ritz”
We now employ and house 6 homeless adults to help us …you guessed it “put on the Ritz”
